Jeromy, Kylie and Sharon Wicker have been working to get Kylie a prosthetic hand, but with the usual price of one being $20,000 to $60,000 the Wickers looked for a more affordable option. Jeromy after seeing videos online went in search of schools that are capable of doing 3D printing. After being turned down by two other schools, Boylan staff and students agreed to take on the project. Photo taken Monday, April 28, 2014, at Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford. BRENT LEWIS/RRSTAR.COM

April 28, 2014
4:22 p.m.

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement for 10 Boylan Catholic High School students and a 9-year-old Roscoe girl, brought together by the girl's need for a low-cost prosthetic hand and the students' willingness to help.

Kylie Wicker, a third grader at Whitman Post Elementary School, was born without fingers on her left hand. The bubbling ball of energy with long brown hair and a dimpled smile was used to other kids staring and asking questions. This year was different, said her dad, Jeromy Wicker.

"You could tell. ... It was starting to bother her," Wicker said.

Insurance would only cover the cost of one prosthetic in her lifetime, Wicker said, so the family was going to wait until Kylie was done growing to get her a full-blown prosthesis with built-in sensors that can read muscle commands. Those can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The plan was to wait until Kylie was older to get a prosthesis, but that plan changed when Jeromy Wicker went to the Internet earlier this year.

He wondered what other kids were doing while they waited to be "big enough" for a hand or an arm or a leg. What he found blew him away.

The Internet was filled with stories from around the world about a new invention - a prosthetic hand made using a 3-D printer and instructions the creators posted online for free, for anyone to use.

Wicker started looking for a 3-D printer in the area and someone who might be willing to take on the challenge. His search led him to Boylan where 10 enthusiastic engineering graphics students jumped at the chance to make a difference in the little girl's life.

The students and their instructor, Bud May, met the Wickers last week. May took some measurements of Kylie's hand and wrist, and the class started using a 3-D printer that was donated to the school last year to make the 20 to 30 pieces that they will assemble to make the plastic hand.

They plan to present the finished product to Kylie and her parents Friday at the school.

As for Kylie, she's most excited about the simple things that her new prosthetic will let her do.

“Catching a ball, doing the monkey bars,” she said.

Kylie smiled and nodded her head to a number of other tasks that her parents mentioned from dressing her American Girl dolls to having better control when she's riding her bike.

"It's the little stuff that we take for granted that we don't even notice that she can't do right now that she'll be able to do," said Kylie's mom, Sharon Wicker. "Even when she's eating, if she's taking a bite of something, she can't just grab her drink and take a drink real quick. She has to set it all down."

The production cost for Kylie's prosthetic is only about $5, May said. It consists of about 30 parts -- the molded plastic pieces that act as fingers, cables, elastic, metal pins and a wrist form.